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2018 Goals

I’m not going to lie, traveling has me totally thrown off with dates. I’m not complaining, I just keep thinking it’s the first week of January when it’s almost the third! Time is weird.

So that means that this goals post is coming to you later than most other bloggers’ but it’s also given me time to think through what my goals are.

I love the idea of a guiding word or two for your year — and I’ve arrived on gentle and focus.

Gentle: I’m so hard on myself in a lot of ways. Watching my mom get diagnosed and die of cancer (in addition to all the other crap that happened to me in 2017) was obviously a lot on me emotionally, so I’m trying really hard to be gentle with myself.

Focus: After spending basically two straight years worrying about and then/now grieving over my mom, I let a lot of my own goals fall to the wayside. I know I can be a little gerbil-like, though — I have so many things I want to do!! — so I am attempting to focus down to a few.

1. Get my personal trainer certification.

Omg, I’m sick of me saying this too — I’ve been saying it for years. But I finally have the test scheduled for late February. I just need to sit my ass down and study, and luckily my BFF is a physical therapy professor, so she’s going to help me with the anatomy. (I also bought this anatomy coloring book per a recommendation from Heather’s blog.)

2. Develop my business(es?)

Right now, I really want to be self-employed. My job gave me a lot of flexibility when my mom was sick, and even though that was for a crappy reason, I came to value it. Right now, my ideal work situation (please refer back to gerbil comment) is doing a few things: social media/blog consulting, freelance writing and running/fitness coaching. (Shameless plug: I’m at theodora@theodorablanchfield.com if you need running coaching or social media/blog help! You can learn more about run coaching here and my social media/blog consulting here.)

3. Write, write, write.

After living solely in the short-form (hello 140 characters!) game for quite a few years professionally, losing my mom and my job has helped me re-embrace my identity as a writer. I have three writing goals.

3a. Write. every. damn. day. I consider myself half morning person. I’m so much better than I used to be, and I certainly get up earlier than I used to, but I still hit snooze every day (I know, I know) and am useless until I get my coffee (don’t you dare say a word about giving it up.) So, I try to write in the morning…but it’s usually shit. That said, I want to write nearly every day to stay in practice, and because I never know what will come up that I might want to come back to, either for myself or to try to get published.

3b. Which is a great segue to these next two goals. More bylines! I want to increase the names in my portfolio. Should you happen to be an assigning editor reading… I write about health and fitness, most specifically running and mental health, and also grief. (Write what you know, or something.)

3c. Write a damn book proposal. I have wanted to write a book my entire life and have been scared of writing a proposal. I’ll never get rejected if I don’t try it, right? Well, after all the shit that happened in 2017, what’s a little rejection? (If you’re reading and an agent…) I’m doing the free Blogger to Book ecourse to help me narrow my focus.

4.Lose ~15 pounds.

If I look on my MyFitnessPal graph, I’ve gained 15 pounds since my mom got diagnosed. (What’s emotional eating?!) I would love to get back to the weight I was when she got sick, but more importantly, I want to be able to fit into my clothes and feel more confident in my body again. I’m giving myself all year to reach this goal. For now, what that’s meaning for me is eating closer to Paleo (that’s what’s worked best for me in the past) and doing what a friend calls “Damp January.” So, not Dry January…but less boozy. I’m also focusing more on strength training in conjunction with my running — going to both Uplift (disclaimer: free because I’m working with them on social media) and Orangetheory.

5. PR in some race distance.

I’d love for this new focus on strength + running to result in a PR. Ideally the half, but I know that’s pretty ambitious right now, so I’ll take any distance. (Maybe 15K or 10-miler; that’s my slowest-paced race PR right now.)

Good luck with your personal trainer certification! I passed my exams in 2017 and it felt so good to have a couple years of school finally come to fruition. I’m sure you’ll do great. Which certification did you decide to go with?

Getting your businesses going sounds like it’ll be fun and exciting too. It sounds like 2018 will be a great year for you.

I love love love these goals/words. I feel like your focus and my intention are in a very similar vein, and we’ve got some pretty similar goals. I hope 2018 exceeds your wildest expectations, my friend!

I want to lose weight and PR in a race too! It would be great if my podcast took off and I could do that full time. Right now the most short-term and important goal is to get my ankle healed for our next race. I rolled it and sprained it pretty bad in the end of December and it is still swollen and healing. How do you do with Paleo when sweet cravings hit?

Oh no 🙁 Hope your ankle heals soon! When I’m doing Paleo, I’d say I stick to it maybe 90%-ish, so I do allow myself some indulgences from time to time. (ahem wine haha) I’m not much of a sweets person, but I’ll have some dark chocolate

I gave my goal to go at least three days a week at the gym and I try to be regular …. but what I recommend except for physical activity is a diet. See here the diet that changes your lifehttp://bit.ly/2DLnRjU

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Hi! I'm Theodora. I lost 50 pounds a few years ago and discovered my own path to a healthy, active life on the run in NYC. Along the way, I've struggled with grief, mental health issues and gaining some of the weight back, but you can always count on my honesty! Follow along for all the ups and downs on my journey! And lots of bad puns and wine.